Some 15 years ago this place was nothing else but a desert. Today Dubai Marina is a district with some 100,000 inhabitants and an area where people meet for shopping, eating or just hanging around.

Dubai Marina is built along a 3 km long, man-made waterway bringing the water of the Persian Gulf into the city. If the weather is fine, you can spend quite some time walking along the public walkways or you take one of the dhows for a cruise through the canal and along the coast.

Part of Dubai Marina is the so called “Tallest Block in the World” a collection of skyscrapers right next to each other. What sounds like a massive boring collection of concrete is indeed an interesting ensemble of well-designed houses. The most interesting one is most probably the Cayan Tower (formerly Infinity Tower), a 73 story skyscraper that’s twisted by 90 degrees.

Burj Khalifa is still THE iconic landmark in Dubai and everybody seems to have a selfie with the tower on top of his priority list. In the evening the crowd watching the fountains of the neighboring Dubai Mall is as big as it ever was.

What was new to me, is that a lightshow was installed at Burj Khalifa illuminating it mostly with abstract patterns, but also with the name of Emaar, the real estate developing company responsible not only for Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall but also i.e. for Dubai Marina.

Burj Al Arab is still one of the most attractive buildings there. Usually you see photographs of the full structure standing alone at the beach. These pictures are taken from a public beach north of it. But there are some more opportunities when you go south and visit the Souk Madinat Jumeirah. You don't come very near to Burj Al Arab as this would need to enter a hotel area that is closed to public [of course you can stay there for the night to avoid that restriction ], but as you can see there are options to work around that problem.